Studies are being conducted to determine the mechanisms through which the frontal eye fields of the cerebral cortex exert control over eye movements and visual attention in the monkey. Single cell recordings are made while the monkeys perform a series of visual tasks involving eye movements or visual fixation. We have found that the frontal eye fields contain a neural mechanism for the generation of visually-guided eye movements. Component neurons include neurons anticipating the onset of a signal to make an eye movement, neurons responding to the stimulus used to evoke an eye movement, neurons discharging specifically before eye movements (both to visual targets and to remembered visual targets), and neurons discharging after eye movements. Experiments creating a dissonance between retinal stimulation and required eye movement direction have shown that the critical information for frontal eye field neurons is not the retinal location of an eye movement target but rather the required direction of the eye movement. These data imply that the frontal eye fields contain a neural mechanism to integrate visual information, recent oculomotor information, and motivational information to determine the appropriateness, direction, and amplitude of an eye movement.